Elisa and Xanatos both stood on the north tower the next evening, waiting with great anticipation to greet the clan and give them some exciting news. The interrogation of Macbeth's henchman had led to a breakthrough. The Quarrymen task force had raided several locations, arrested and charged scores of individuals suspected of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, and seized both evidence and weaponry. More excitingly, they had apprehended the Quarrymen's greatest financial backer who, in a desperate attempt to save himself, was now singing like a canary. Elisa's day had been a busy one, and another busy night lay ahead, but she was so pleased at the outcome of their investigation that she couldn't help but come and tell Goliath in person.
The sun was minutes away from tucking under the western horizon, when she was distracted by the chirp of her cell phone. She took it out and frowned at the indication of another text message. She had been genuinely caught off guard when she began receiving text messages from Jason earlier that day. Her phone was equipped with the ability to send and receive them, but she rarely used the service, as she found it an inefficient way of having a conversation, but Jason had insisted that he couldn't speak on the phone at the moment and was reliant on communicating with her using short, vague messages that typically provoked more questions than they provided answers.
She'd asked him if he'd be interested in getting together and chatting, and he'd responded affirmatively, but told her he was no longer in the city. She'd asked where he'd moved to but he hadn't responded to that message and instead began asking questions about her job, her cases, and other subjects that were entirely too difficult to elaborate on using only her thumbs and her phone's number pad. She was beginning to get frustrated and was unsure how to proceed. She needed to speak to him in person in order to explain why Demona needed to see him. Even as it was, Elisa could think of dozens of questions he would most likely ask that she didn't have an answer for. She anticipated it would be hard sell even if she had all the answers.
She flipped open the phone and read a message which left an uneasy feeling in her gut.
"Are you still friends with their leader?"
Elisa typed her answer confidently.
"That will never change."
"Where do you see him?"
Elisa squinted at the strange question.
"Anywhere. Why do you ask?"
"Do they let you go inside the castle where Xanatos has them hidden during the day?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Did you know that he keeps her there too?"
Elisa stared at the last message. She could only guess the intended tone of it, but it blared at her like an accusation. There could be no doubt who he was talking about. Even though she understood why the clan had chosen to keep Demona prisoner in the castle, she had never felt comfortable with the situation. She certainly never felt comfortable with assuring the chief of police that Demona had been destroyed and was no longer a threat to the city. She wondered how Jason had found out that she was still alive, but she concluded that it didn't matter. Goliath intended for Jason to meet Demona eventually, if he could get her to answer his questions. If Jason hadn't found out, he would have been told soon enough.
Her worrying was interrupted by the sound of cracking stone as the clan awoke with the sunset. Elisa and Xanatos excitedly shared the news and were met with a relieved and joyful reaction from the whole clan.
"Our work's not done," Elisa told them earnestly, "We have a whole page of addresses where more Quarrymen could be hiding. We haven't found Canmore yet, but if we move quickly there is still a good chance we will get him and the evidence we need to convict him!"
The others cheered the great news and immediately began looking over Elisa's notes in order to plan their strategy. Meanwhile, Broadway looked troubled as he stood to the side.
"What troubles you, Friend?" Blaze asked him, and the others stopped planning and glanced over at them. Broadway looked from the others, to Angela, who despite having slept the whole day in broad daylight, already looked quite exhausted.
"This is so important but…"
"But Angela is more important," Elisa finished for him, "And you need to stay here with her tonight."
"But without me and Angela that only leaves the three of you," Broadway observed, still looking concerned.
"What about us?" Thorn demanded defensively, "Are we good for nothing?"
"You want to come on a case with us?" Brooklyn asked skeptically.
"Of course we do, my friend!" Blaze assured him, "Please do not allow last night's episode with the…What was it called, Lexington?"
"A fire alarm," he replied with a tone of annoyance.
"A most practical invention! We were merely enjoying the strange sounds and lights it made and we didn't realize that it would trigger a torrent of indoor rain, nor how much trouble it would cause Xanatos' poor servant. But even though my brother and I do enjoy our share of mischief making, we both become serious warriors when the situation requires it."
"Aye. T'is true enough," Thorn agreed.
"So we will be more than happy to accompany you and fight beside you! And woe to these Quarrymen who would threaten our friends! Let them come as they will and we will face them and leave them all, skulls crushed and their entrails flailing in the…
"We need them alive so we can use them to get to Canmore," Elisa interrupted before Blaze's graphic bragging could get out of hand.
"Did I mention that we are both very versatile fellows and take direction without complaint?" he asked, smiling sweetly at her.
Goliath smiled slightly at the two young characters before him. He realized that, as time passed, he found himself more and more amused by their antics. Linnet was not so impressed.
"Have you not thought about what our leader would say to the idea of you going off into this strange city to face an enemy you know absolutely nothing about?" she demanded of her brothers.
"Aye, sister, that I have," Blaze informed her, "And last night, just before she disappeared into the secret realm of maternal pursuits, she specifically ordered us to cooperate with our hosts and have a good time."
"Aye, that she did," Thorn confirmed with an anticipatory growl , "And this adventure sounds like a very good time to me!"
Goliath considered the two powerful, if a bit impetuous, warriors. He had to admit that this case was one of a rare few that Demona would most likely approve of.
"The faster we get this done, the better," Brooklyn reminded Goliath, "Having two extra warriors to watch our backs wouldn't be a bad idea."
"Yeah," Lexington agreed genially, "And they could break all the Quarrymen's stuff instead of ours."
"Very well," Goliath agreed, "We would gladly have your help in the matter."
The two young gargoyles bowed obediently, while sharing a satisfied glance.
"We are at your command," Thorn told him.
The team of five left the others and set off to the first address on Elisa's list.
They found both the first two addresses abandoned. If anyone had been there recently, they had already cleared out and taken everything with them. At the third address, they were alarmed to find a small plume of smoke rising from two windows in the basement.
"Why does this building not have an alarm to warn the humans of a fire?" Thorn asked indignantly, "I thought you said that all buildings were meant to have one."
"It does have one," Lexington explained, "Someone has disarmed it. This fire was set on purpose."
The gargoyles burst into the basement room to find a shoddy attempt at a fire smoldering in a canvas mail cart.
"They were tipped off," Lexington bitterly told Elisa over the cell phone while the others quickly put out the fire, "They were trying to destroy all the evidence, but we saved a lot of it." Elisa and Matt arrived on the scene minutes later and praised them for the recovery. Elisa told Goliath to be careful, and hinted that they'd run into some trouble at the one address they'd visited.
"What kind of trouble?" Goliath asked, frowning.
"I'll give you a full update later," Elisa assured him, "The Quarrymen know we're on to them and they're scrambling to cover their tracks, but they're getting sloppy. The quicker we move, the better the chance we have of uncovering something important!"
The five gargoyles were quickly back into the air, heading to the next address.
"Do you think we may finally get Canmore?" Brooklyn asked Goliath excitedly, "Oh, man! Bringing down the Quarrymen organization? That would change everything!"
Goliath nodded, allowing himself to wonder what it really would mean. He did suspect that without their leader to ensnare their minds and encourage their hatred, the Quarrymen would gradually lose the coordination and the will to move against the gargoyles. But then, in the back of his mind, he remembered what Demona had said about the Hunter's curse. Capturing Canmore might mean the end of the Quarrymen, but it would not break the curse. What would be next?
"Hey!" Lexington alerted them, looking at his cell phone, "I just got a message from Elisa!"
"What does she say?" Brooklyn asked earnestly.
"It's a text message. It just says, 'SOS'."
"Well, call her and see what's up?" Brooklyn suggested, motioning for them to land on a nearby rooftop.
Lexington called Elisa's phone and got no answer, so he replied to the message.
"What's up?"
"I need help."
"What happened?"
"Pick me up?"
"Where?"
"Help. Please!"
"Come on," Goliath growled, "Back to where we left her."
They hurried against a vicious headwind to the address where they'd last met. Two officers were still loading smokey boxes of evidence into a van, but Elisa and Matt were nowhere in sight. Lexington had continued trying to get a response from Elisa on his phone, but none came.
"What do we do now?" Brooklyn asked in visible fear and frustration.
"Her phone has a GPS in it," Lexington told them confidently as he pulled a device from his bag, "I can trace it back to her location."
The others waited anxiously as he traced the signal to an apartment building in Brooklyn.
"How in the world did she get there so fast?" Lexington wondered out loud.
"Yeah, and who took her there?" Brooklyn asked.
"Whoever has her, they will regret it!" Goliath promised, and they all took to the sky again.
It took some time for them to get to the apartment building, which turned out to be eight levels of clearly occupied homes.
"Where is she?" Brooklyn asked Lexington.
"Somewhere on this side of the building," he replied sheepishly, "But the GPS can't tell us which floor."
"Ugh! How do we search for her in a building full of sleeping people?" Brooklyn demanded.
"Set the building ablaze!" Thorn shouted triumphantly, "Then the humans will have to come out!"
"What is wrong with you?" Brooklyn demanded.
"Nay. Just a wee fire in a container!" Blaze explained, "Then the fire alarm will warn all the humans to wake up and leave the building!"
Lexington looked at Goliath and shrugged his shoulders. A short time later, a large crowd of annoyed humans stood around the base of the building, arguing heatedly about whether or not the building was actually on fire. Meanwhile, the five gargoyles raced through the upper floors, calling out Elisa's name. They encountered only a single alarm scoffer, who they caught playing video games in his armchair with a bowl of chips in his lap. With wide eyes and trembling mouth, the terrified young man stared at the formidable creatures who effortlessly popped open his dead bolted door and glanced around his unkempt studio.
"Sorry, we were just looking for someone," Brooklyn explained as he turned to leave.
"Did you not hear the fire alarm?" Thorn asked irritably.
They had gone through nearly the entire building, when they heard the sound of the fire engines arriving outside, and Goliath informed them it was time to go. They raced back up the staircase to the roof and glided to a nearby building to watch the firemen interacting with a lobby full of annoyed residents in varying degrees of undress. Elisa had not been in the building and no more messages had come from her phone.
"Hey, wait!" Lexington shouted, "She's moved! The GPS shows her on another street across the river!"
"Across the river?" Goliath exclaimed, "Something isn't right about this."
"Maybe she wasn't in the building at all?" Lexington suggested, "Maybe she was in a truck or something outside and they were waiting for us to go in so they could move her again."
"They want us to chase them," Goliath realized, "They mean to distract us from our mission. Still, we cannot leave Elisa in their hands."
They followed Lexington's GPS to the other location.
"Let's not be impetuous this time," Goliath warned them, "They are trying to trick us and we need to outsmart them if we are going to save Elisa."
Suddenly, Lexington's phone chirped again, and he found another message.
"Where are you? Please, I need your help!"
"We're trying to find you, but the signal keeps moving. Do you know what kind of vehicle they have you in?"
"Hurry!"
"Come on," Brooklyn urged the others, "They don't have her in a building. We need to be searching for trucks."
They split up to search the area, forcing open vans or trucks that looked suspicious.
"We're getting too far from the signal," Lexington worried as he looked down at his GPS.
"Hey!" he cried, "She's on the move again!"
"No way!" Brooklyn exclaimed incredulously as the both watched the GPS signal seemingly float across neighborhoods and rivers, resting on a location far away, "Are they flying?"
They climbed up the side of a building and glided to the top of a church tower that gave them a clear view in every direction. Anxiously, they scanned the sky, looking for a sign of a helicopter or small aircraft in the region the GSP pinpointed.
"What are you doing up here?" Goliath asked frustratedly as he and the others took places on the ornate tower.
"The signal's fake," Lexington realized, "Someone's gotten her phone and has hacked it to send us on a wild goose chase."
"And we've been on it for hours," Goliath lamented, "We're still no closer to finding Elisa while the Quarrymen are scattering into hiding."
Urgently, Lexington began unloading his bag.
"I think I know how to find her for real," he told them as he assembled his laptop and connected it to his GPS device, "They may have toasted the GPS on Elisa's phone, but I bet I can get the real location of where the fake signal is coming from."
The others watched as Lexington clicked away at his equipment.
"Yes!" he shouted at last, and he showed them the result of his work.
"This is where the hackers are sending the fake signal from," Lexington told them triumphantly, "And I bet if we find the hackers, we find Elisa too!"
The gargoyles took to the wind once more, hoping that the hackers hadn't expected Lexington to match them at their own game and that taking them by surprise would allow them to rescue Elisa unharmed. They found their location in an office suite in an unassuming building, just across the river from the imposing castle. Peeking in through the windows, Brooklyn was able to scout out the building and determine that only the bottom floor seemed occupied. Though it was hard to say how many were inside, Brooklyn had discovered what looked like a conference room with at least four men and a wall full of computer monitors.
"Looks like the Quarrymen's geek squad in there," Brooklyn informed them.
"What are geeks?" Thorn asked eagerly, "Are they warriors?"
"I hope they are as much fun as the 'gangsters' you introduced us to last night!" Blaze added, smiling wickedly at the memory.
"Did you see Elisa?" Goliath asked Brooklyn urgently.
"No, but I bet she's under guard somewhere inside," Brooklyn replied uneasily, "They're laughing their behinds off in there because they've been toying with us all night. This could still be just another trap."
Goliath gave a low, but frustrated growl. He was desperate to get to Elisa, but he knew that wherever there were Quarrymen gathered, there was a good chance of well-armed mercenaries. A strategic entrance was their best bet of getting her back unharmed.
"Perhaps we split up?" Blaze suggested, "Thorn and I could go in and have a dance with the geeks, drawing their fire so you can search for your friend in the rest of the building?"
Goliath frowned. He suddenly realized that in the urgency of the task before him, he'd forgotten his promise to Demona. Their quest had changed drastically from one that she most likely would have approved of, to one in which he had no doubt she would resent her charges being involved.
"Do you think you can find your way back to the castle alone?" he asked them.
"Did you mean, that castle?" Thorn asked sarcastically, pointing a talon toward what was easily the most prominent structure in view, "Aye, I think we could find it if we put our heads together. But is this not the sort of situation you brought us for?"
Goliath sighed, "Your leader holds a grudge against Elisa, and she would not approve of your lives being put at risk to rescue her."
"Lives at risk?" Blaze replied incredulously, "Just how big is a geek? Do they breathe fire?"
"It's not that," Goliath explained further, "It's the principle of the thing. I'm trying to keep the peace."
"Peace is not a condition to my liking," Thorn complained, "T'is poor exercise and bad for the spirit. Do let us stay! We wish to help you."
"I would much prefer that you return the castle," Goliath insisted, "And if you can find Broadway, Xanatos, or Owen, tell them what's happened and where we are. That would indeed be helpful."
The two brothers glanced at each other and Blaze sighed in disappointment.
"Very well," he replied with a bow, "Come, Thorn." And together they left the others on the rooftop.
"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Brooklyn asked anxiously.
"No," Goliath replied with a sigh, "But it wasn't my idea."
Now down to only three warriors, they decided to modify Blaze's strategy and Goliath and Lexington took the first floor with great fanfare, while Brooklyn snuck in quietly from the roof and tried to find Elisa. The plan seemed to work, at first. After erupting through the doorway, quickly disarming the two armed guards, and tossing some furniture and few Quarrymen around the room, they wound up with a group of ten self-righteous, but clearly terrified cowards, tied up with fiberoptic cable into rolling office chairs. Moments later, Brooklyn arrived to congratulate them on their success.
"Did you find Elisa?" they asked in urgent unison.
"No, she isn't here," Brooklyn replied angrily. Goliath growled fiercely at the cowering Quarrymen, who were clearly a team more suited for digital warfare than facing actual danger. He grabbed the shirt of one of the more vocal men, and drew him, chair and all, to meet his face.
"Where is Detective Maza?" he snarled in a low, menacing tone.
"We don't know," he squeaked, "We never saw her!"
"How did you get her phone?!" he bellowed in frustration.
"We didn't! Canmore gave us the number, but we never had the phone and we never saw the cop. He just told us to keep you busy."
"Now I get it," Lexington groaned, "These goons have been hacking Elisa's phone remotely. Goliath, the Quarrymen might not even have her at all!"
Goliath roared furiously and sent the man rolling violently across the tile floor where he crashed into the rest of the prisoners like a bowling ball hitting the pins. Several of them cried out in pain as they were slammed into the wall or knocked over completely.
"Call Matt Bluestone," Goliath ordered Lexington, "See if he answers."
Lexington did as he was told and quickly got Matt on the line.
"Where have you guys been?" Bluestone asked in a frustrated voice that was loud enough they could all hear it over the phone.
"It's a long story," Lexington replied, "But is Elisa still there with you?"
Brooklyn and Goliath sighed with relief as Lexington gave them a thumbs up sign. He spoke to her only for a few moments, then hung up saying,
"Elisa and Matt are on their way with backup."
"Good," Brooklyn replied, "Now we just have to babysit these low-lives until they get here."
"I think not!" cried a shaky voice to the side of them, and they all turned to find that one of the Quarrymen had managed to wriggle his way out of his confinement and now stood at the door, his hand placed over a white button that was adhered to the underside of a desk.
"Don't come any closer!" he demanded, his unimpressive voice become a bit more confident, "This button is hooked up to enough explosives to take out this room and all of us with it."
The three of them froze. It was a realistic threat. Who knew what information the computers in this room held? It made sense that precautions would be taken to ensure they could be destroyed quickly.
"You want to be blown up too?" Brooklyn pointed out.
"We'd all be willing to die to stop you from invading our city!" the Quarryman declared, although some of the cries and whimpers coming from the corner suggested the view was not universally held among them.
"I'm not sure all your friends would agree," Goliath replied.
"Let them go then," the Quarryman said, "Let them go, and I won't detonate."
Suspiciously, Goliath nodded toward Lexington, who slowly approached the corner and untied the prisoners, one by one, allowing them to escape through the doorway on the opposite end of the room.
"All right then," Goliath said softly, "Now you follow them. This battle isn't worth your life."
"My life's not worth the cost of losing the war," he snarled back, emotion and fear brimming in his eyes, "None of our lives are if it means a future like the one you, and your kind, and the likes of David Xanatos are planning for us! You don't think we know?! You don't think we know?!"
The man was shrieking now, and shaking violently as he held his hand over the button.
"Oh we know! We know the police are in on it and the news media! We're not gonna let you destroy humanity! I'm not gonna let you!"
With a last tearful gasp of breath, the man drew his hand back to strike the detonator. But in the same moment, another hand, or rather, a claw came smashing down on his head, knocking him to the floor unconscious."
Goliath, Brooklyn, and Lexington gaped in amazement as Blaze and Thorn sheepishly crept into the room.
"We got lost on the way to the castle," Thorn said quietly.
"Oh, really?" Brooklyn asked, crossing his arms and Thorn shrugged and gave the knocked out terrorist a poke with his spiky tail.
"You see," Blaze explained in an apologetic tone, "There's a wee thing I forgot to mention before. My brother and I are also known to be wickedly incorrigible from time to time."
"Not I!" Thorn replied defensively, giving his brother a shove on the shoulder, "You are the incorrigible one!"
"T'is the truth," Blaze admitted sadly, "I suppose that is why the elders saw fit to call me Self-Will-A-Blaze. I hope you will forgive me, Goliath."
Brooklyn shook his head in disbelief as he hoisted the thin frame of the fallen bomber over his shoulder.
"They're a little rough," he commented, "But I think we're going to appreciate having them around."
Elisa and Matt arrived at the scene a short time later, along with two other squad cars and an EMT van. Goliath gave a more detailed account of what had occurred since they'd lost contact with her.
"We wasted the whole night," Brooklyn lamented, "We even lost most of the geek squad!"
"Oh, were those men that came running out of the building the geeks?" Blaze asked him.
"I'm afraid so," Brooklyn replied unhappily.
"Well, they weren't lost," Blaze informed him nonchalantly, "Thorn and I grabbed them and rammed them into the back of that great wagon over there."
The others followed his gesture to white box truck parked on the side of the road. The metal bar that opened and closed the gate on the back had clearly been twisted beyond function.
"You stuffed all nine of them in that truck?" Brooklyn demanded incredulously.
"Aye, we did," Thorn replied, "But I punched a wee hole in the top. For air."
"If you ask me, we've gotten a little too civilized around here anyway," Lexington commented approvingly.
As the sun was about to rise, the gargoyles took shelter on a nearby rooftop, while the exhausted task force continued the process of arresting and transporting the captured Quarrymen. The medic was able to revive the man that Thorn had knocked out, who seemed to be somewhat delirious as he laughed like a hyena.
"What's so funny, sir?" Elisa asked him, "You may be an expert at wasting our time and annoying people, but we got exactly what we wanted in the end."
"You think this was about protecting computers and paperwork?" he taunted her, "You may have gotten us, but the sun's been up for over an hour and you are too late to save her."
"Her who?" Elisa asked with a roll of her eyes, half convinced the head trauma had turned the man's brain to slosh.
"You know who," he sneered confidently."